OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – The Latest on a new federal law that would mark the passports of some sex offenders (all times local):
1:30 p.m.
An attorney challenging a new federal law that requires some sex offenders to have “unique identifiers” in their passports says the mark would wrongly imply they had engaged in child sex trafficking or child sex tourism.
Janice Bellucci told a federal judge in Oakland on Wednesday that the law has been touted as a way to crack down on those two crimes.
But U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton questioned whether Bellucci was making a leap from the law’s requirement that a marker be placed on the passports of people convicted of sex offenses against children.
President Barack Obama signed the law in February. It also requires that foreign nations be notified when registered sex offenders are traveling there.
Bellucci seeks a court order blocking the law and says it could put passport holders in danger. Hamilton didn’t rule immediately.
___
12:30 a.m.
A judge in Northern California is set to hear arguments over whether to block a new federal law that requires sex offenders to have “unique identifiers” in their passports.
U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton has scheduled a hearing Wednesday in Oakland on a nonprofit group’s request for a preliminary injunction against the so-called International Megan’s Law, which President Barack Obama signed into law in February.
The law requires the Secretary of State to add “unique identifiers” to the passports of registered sex offenders.
The group, California Reform Sex Offender Laws, has filed a lawsuit challenging the law. It says a symbol on a passport identifying people as registered sex offenders violates their constitutional rights and puts them and others traveling with them in danger.